Football is NOT a matter of life or death… and fans abusing owners at Man Utd and West Ham should remember that

A FOOTBALL club is the sum of all its parts.

The culture of football is curious — steeped in tribalism, a sense of ownership, huge amounts of emotion and often a complete lack of objectivity.

So, who really owns a club?

Is it the rich owners from far-flung shores? The managers, players and dreaded limpets (agents)? Or is it the heartbeat of the club — the fans?

As a former owner of the club that I was a supporter of — and I use that word purposely — I believe there is a vast difference between a ‘supporter’ and a ‘fan’.

I believe that clubs are owned by its supporters. A lot is made of the responsibility of the various factions that make up football.

Owners are reminded they are merely custodians and their money is a given.

Players and managers are demanded to give unprecedented levels of loyalty not exhibited in any other place of work, with fans forgetting that 90 per cent of them don’t support the club they play for.

It's simply not right — and that’s before we mention fans being removed from stadiums due to racist and homophobic chants

The only real loyalty that can be expected is, regardless of whether they stay for weeks, months or years, that they give their best weeks, months or years.

Agents don’t own football, they merely rinse money from it and more often than not bring out the seven deadly sins in our national sport — greed, wrath, envy, pride, sloth, gluttony and lust. The authorities at times are not much better.

The real owners are the supporters.

Whether it is eyes on TV screens around the world or those watching at wet and windy stadiums, they have a great deal of responsibility towards the well-being of the game.

With that in mind we have to consider a few things.

Certain supporters want to hold others to standards that they do not meet themselves.

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It is fair to say that supporter behaviour reflects society and that football should not be held to a greater standard, despite the influence it yields.

Despite the Premier League’s rise as one of the best in the world, owners, management and players are now being put under levels of unreasonable abuse.

While I’m no fan of co-owners David Gold and David Sullivan at West Ham, the abuse aimed at them because the team are poor and the stadium is not what they want is wrong.

Manchester United’s Ed Woodward has had so-called fans turning up to his family home throwing smoke bombs, while at Everton’s training ground fans were demanding to b****** the players.